DEAN OF African-American Affairs M. Rick Turner owes a sincere and detailed apology to the entire University community. In a blatantly racist act on Feb. 9, he asked a University student to leave a public event, strictly because of the student's skin color. Turner had publicly advertised the event, entitled "A conversation with black men," as a searching dialogue focused on race-related issues. But when third-year student Jake Guzman arrived to participate in this discussion, Turner announced his strong preference that all non-black males leave. This is inexcusable. Not only has Turner very probably acted in violation of the University's policy of non-discrimination, but he has also demeaned and degraded the dignity of an innocent student who sought nothing more than to sit down and have a candid discussion with his peers. In seeing this heinous act of racial exclusion perpetrated by a man who has built a career upon his cries for racial justice, the hypocrisy is as thick as it is revolting.
And it gets much worse. On Feb. 17, Guzman wrote a detailed letter to the editor ("A closed dialogue") in which he expressed how Turner's racist exclusion made him feel deeply "embarrassed and humiliated." Yet after the publication of this letter, no one seemed to notice. There was no outcry. There was no apology from the administration. There was no statement on racial sensitivity from the usually oh-so-sensitive office of University President John T. Casteen, III. A high-ranking and well-known administrator had stood face-to-face with a University student and told him to leave a public event because of his race, and nobody gave a damn.
Then, on Feb. 19, Dean Turner finally addressed the issue in a letter to the editor -- but the letter contained no apology. Instead, Turner's letter brazenly offers to "explain" his actions to the University community. His intent, he assures us, "was not to exclude others but rather to facilitate a conversation with black male students about important issues of race, gender, and class." As such, he "felt it important to have this private discussion" -- and by "private," of course, he means racially exclusive. Incredibly, Turner's letter claims that his only error in this situation came from his public advertisement of the discussion. "In hindsight," he writes, "invitations would have been more appropriate." In a phone interview, Turner admitted that he made a mistake and that he is regretful of his racial exclusion, but no one would have known it from his letter.
Of course, it's unlikely that the administration will investigate, censure or discipline Turner for his openly racist attitude or his crass mistreatment of a University student. The University's policies on racial preferences have made it abundantly clear that when someone like Turner claims social justice as his motive, he is effectively granted a carte blanche to trample the dignity of whomever he pleases. To achieve lofty goals, corners must be cut. Hands must be dirtied. In student admissions and faculty hiring, unabashed racial preferences must be thrust upon individuals because the noble ends ultimately justify the ugly means. What is the mere dignity and respect of one Jake Guzman worth, compared to the ambitious strivings of an honorable man who is working to alleviate hundreds of years of racial oppression?
The University will not and cannot rebuke Turner, because his callow hypocrisy mirrors that of college administrators throughout the country who spend their days preaching platitudes of racial justice while pitching policies of racial discrimination. These two-faced pragmatists readily invoke the principles of non-discrimination and legal equality when useful, and then quickly abandon them when it becomes expedient. With Turner's actions, the gross inhumanity of such a stance becomes painfully manifest. To appreciate the dehumanizing hurt that invariably follows from racial discrimination, the conclusion of Guzman's letter bears quoting.
"To exclude someone based on the color of his skin in this day, at this university, is unacceptable. Furthermore, to assume that because I look white I cannot share any common characteristics, experiences or ideas with someone who looks black is absurd
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